Now, licensing companies are targeting restaurants. Just like food costs and
rent, restaurants must pay thousands of dollars a year to play copyrighted
music in their establishments as well. If they don't, a huge bill could find
its way to their doorstep, and the rules do not strictly pertain to music
played through a stereo; it also applies to bands playing live. If a band
covers an unlicensed song, the restaurant could be fined.

Recently, Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) sued a Raleigh, North Carolina restaurant
called Fosters American Grille to the tune of $30,450 for playing four
copyrighted songs without licenses according
to WRAL News. A federal judge
also ordered that the restaurant pay $10,700 in attorneys' fees.

"We've been attempting to resolve this for two years now," said
Robbin Ahrold, BMI's vice president of corporate communications and marketing.
"It is our obligation when we sign an agreement with these songwriters to
be diligent and do what we can do to collect their royalties."

BMI collects license fees from businesses that play copyrighted music, and delivers the
royalties to artists and copyright owners. Currently, BMI licensing fees are
$6,060 per year, and it sends employees into local bars to see what music is
playing inside to make sure the establishment is complying with these fees.

That is how Fosters' owners, John Powers and Ralph Nelson, were caught. Their
restaurant had played Michael Jackson and R. Kelly songs as well as a song
called "Aeroplane" illegally when the BMI employees made their way
into Fosters. The restaurant is now closed, but according to copyright attorney
Rick Matthews, Powers said the music lawsuit is not the reason Fosters closed.
Apparently there were sewer and water issues in the building, and that was the
reason for closing. But a $30,000+ music licensing fee probably didn't help
either.

"Oh, it will close a business, you know, having a bill of that magnitude immediately,"
said Matthews.

On the other hand, some restaurant owners feel that it is best to pay up to
avoid such legal problems in the future. "It's very important to us to
have the right music because of the atmosphere, and there are expenses that go
along with that," said Royster who owns a Ruckus Pizza restaurant in
Raleigh.

Other North Carolina bars/restaurants that BMI has sued includes Alley Cat,
Andrew Blair's, Sharpshooters Sports Bar, Forty Rod Roadhouse and White Owl.
According to WRAL News, there have been a total
of 38 lawsuits across the country this year alone.

Comments

Threshold

Username

Password

remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

The whole idea of royalties is messed up and needs scrapped (just like patent system) plain and simple.

The "laws" in place do not play well with consumers currently. What are they going to do now sue the people outside of concerts who can hear the music inside?

The sheer stupidly of MPAA/RIAA/BMI etc is what drives costs up, in turn drives people to pirate such material ( or you could argue makes stupid material).

I could go on and on about the stupid things they do, but its been said over and over on the internet. Point is Zune pass is not the fix for anything. People pay monthly fees for so much stuff now, why would they consider paying another for something they can get with other packages currently? HSI you can listen to songs online free. Most phones you can stream free to.

Face it, people this generation don't want to pay even 99cents to download a song from some band that was around when dad was young. Generation gaps are quickly changing the moral compass of how to purchase songs and for what reasons.

Yes, amazingly enough, that is considered a public performance, even though the radio station has already paid the licensing fees for public broadcast. In some places it's a bit more nuanced - if the garage plays the radio they have to license it, but if an employee brings his own radio and turns it on without the garage owner knowing then it's allowed.

The RIAA's wet dream is a device implanted on your ears which makes you to pay a license fee every time you hear a copyrighted song.

It was his own music collection, not the radio. They were warned before they were fined. While I can understand the stupidity of the law, I cannot condone what he did either after being warned.

Most restaurants just use sat radio (not XM or anything) and that's licensed. But if they play their own, that's against the law. How my local gym gets away with it, I don't know or care, cause it really is stupid.